On a recent Saturday I went to the grocery store and took a number at the deli. They were on number 49. My number was 62. It was quite a crowd. Some people came in pairs, browsing in front of the glass displays as they waited for their turn, making it hard for me to […]

I’ve been traveling. A lot. Heaps, you might say, for those Down Under. I’ve learned three important life lessons in my travels this past three months during all the travel on which I’ve embarked for Little Flower Strategies. There’s been, in fact, more than three lessons, to be sure. Out of respect for your time, I’m […]

Sometimes, I find myself aspiring to be a “contemplative.” But looking at the long and somewhat complex definition in the Catholic Encyclopedia, I wonder if that really is possible for those of us who have to live “in the world.” I won’t bother you with much of that entry in the encyclopedia. Suffice to say […]

I can hardly tell you how often I’ve had the following thoughts lately: “She’s married with three kids and she is only a year older than I am, what am I doing with my life?“ “She’s traveled to six different countries in the last three years, what on Earth have I been doing?“ “He’s got a great […]

Just as it is helpful for women to talk to women now and again regarding the spiritual life, the same holds true for men! David N. Calvillo’s book, Real Men Pray the Rosary: A Practical Guide to a Powerful Prayer, is a forthright conversation with men (and us women who sneak a peek) about his own […]

A life of holiness is not something that is relegated to the cloister and the monastery. It is for everyone. This is something I learned from studying the lives of the saints, from learning to pray with the Church, and from the Scriptures themselves. We are all called to be perfect as our heavenly Father […]

Most Catholics are familiar with the three vows taken by most religious of poverty, chastity and obedience. To these three, St. Benedict (whose feast we celebrated July 11), added a fourth for the Benedictine order, the vow of stability. Our summer seminarian who had considered joining the Benedictines at one time spoke to us today […]

Her son was a wild one. She had tried to impart solid virtues and a lively faith—but her atheist husband quashed that with his brusque way and bad example. So when her eldest son reached his teens, he broke away—rejecting Christianity for an occult religion, and preferring an easy life of casual relationships and carefree […]

Stephen J. Binz’s passion is teaching Catholics to engage in an intimate and powerful dialogue with God through Sacred Scripture. With graduate degrees from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he is a much sought-after author and speaker. Ten years ago, he completed additional graduate studies in social work and […]

O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! (Psalm 95: 6) To kneel before God is a blessed thing. We are the only creatures who roam the earth with a free will, and the only ones with the freedom to give homage by kneeling to the One […]

The poor remodeler, he was so uncomfortable that I thought he might break into a sweat. In fact, he might already have been sweating, but I dared not look too closely, lest my scrutiny escalate his discomfort. He’d come to bid on our kitchen reconstruction and walked into more than he’d bargained for. However, the […]

My own life did not take on a deep spiritual dimension until I was pregnant with my fourth child. But, once I turned seriously to prayer and saw the results, I became hooked. It began when my husband Mark lost his job. For the first time we consciously put our lives in God’s hands. Whenever […]

Time has gone by quickly, but it has been eight years since I started working as a Catholic writer. In that time, my mission has remained the same – I have always wanted to help women find God in the everyday busyness of their lives. I walk in those shoes. I know how crazy life […]

A few years back, a Princeville, Illinois family I know hosted an Italian teen for the summer. This young man enjoyed many parts of his summer, but was mystified by the weather. In the rural Midwest, during the summer, a storm can pass every few days or so, so that at least three or four […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, In every age, men and women who have consecrated their lives to God in prayer – like monks and nuns – have founded their communities in particularly beautiful places: in the countryside, on hilltops, in mountain valleys, on the shores of lakes or of the sea and even on small islands. […]

I recently had the pleasure of reading Difficulties in Mental Prayer by M. Eugene Boylan, O.C.R. Ave Maria Press has issued a new edition of this work which was first published in 1943. Obviously the world has changed a great deal in nearly seventy years. The Church has changed a lot as well, as has […]

PRAY DAILY. I had only been in town a couple of days when I started noticing these bumper stickers. I saw them on cars, trucks, and vans around the city, and many of the same cars bore another sticker that read, TRUST JESUS. I thought, “Could there be a correlation?” Pray daily. Trust Jesus. If […]

We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8: 22-23) This passage from St. Paul to the Romans is […]

Some of the perks of being a Catholic blogger all these years have been the friends I’ve acquired and the lessons learned from them. Stamina, fortitude, and grace, are the gifts of these friends during my short career as a writer of which I am forever changed. One of these new friends is Donna-Marie Cooper […]

I do not enjoy housework. Not even a little bit. Just yesterday I was telling the young lady who lives next door to me that I wished I had a magic wand that I could simply wave and have a clean house! Alas, that is not the case and I do have to put things […]

? Dear Brothers and Sisters, In our catechesis on Christian prayer, we have looked to a number of Old Testament figures who represent models of prayer. We now turn to the great “prayerbook” of sacred Scripture: the Book of Psalms. These inspired songs teach us how to speak to God, expressing ourselves and the whole […]

In the same way that Eucharist is the conjoining of the past, present and future, personal prayer is a present participation in the time to come. It is a glimpse of the Eschaton and an entry into the kingdom which has been inaugurated but not yet consummated. Prayer unfolds in time, but essentially it transcends […]

Talk is cheap. E-mail is even cheaper. Maybe that’s why we’re inundated with trash talk and junk mail (of both the snail variety and it’s fleeter “e” relation). Silence – now that’s precious. Silence is golden. It’s also rare. You don’t realize just how rare until your one-year-old falls asleep in the stroller and you’re […]